A Venetian Man, A Girl in Shorts, A Runner & A Jelly Fish – A Story of Love & Hate Relationship In A Self-Centered Universe

This story is the one “you” write every day… and “I” witness… It goes like this…

There is a beautiful black sand beach hidden from the world. Wild waves of Pacific Ocean crash into rocks and split into thousands of colorful drops that glitter in the sunrise…

A Girl in Shorts comes every morning to greet the sun. She also has a job to do. The ocean waves throw out on the shore hundreds of Jelly Fishes. The girl comes out early in the morning and puts Jelly Fish back in the water, just before the sun starts burning them.

A Runner passes her every morning. He comes to greet the sun and train his heart.

“Do you think they are still alive”, asks the Runner.

“I don’t know, most probably not, maybe a few”, responds the Girl in Shorts and puts another Jelly Fish back into the ocean.

And here is A Venetian Man, he also comes to greet the sun every morning… A nice man, friendly, enjoying the black sand beach… everybody in the village likes him.

The Girl in Shorts sees him on the beach every day. In the last few days he has been walking with a stick, pushing Jelly Fish further away from the water, up on the dry sand.

“Do you think they are all dead?” asks A Girl in Shorts hopefully.

“No, but they will be soon. The sun will melt them.”, proudly responds A Nice Venetian Man…

“Hmmm”… A Girl in Shorts seem to be puzzled… “So, why do you want to kill Jelly Fish?

“I just want them out of the ocean? I don’t like them…”

“Hmmm”… A Girl in Shorts seem to be puzzled even more… “Have you ever been stung by a Jelly Fish?”

“Not yet, but I might be, next time I decide to swim.”

“Are you planning to swim today?” trying to make sense of it asks A Girl in Shorts.

“Ah, no”… laughs A Nice Venetian Man… “I am too old to swim now… But maybe some time next year as I come, I will risk a walk in those wild waters”…

A Girl in Shorts has been puzzled now for a few days… Each time she comes to greet the sun she wonders now about whether Jelly Fishes she put in a water today will be melted by the sun tomorrow…

As she walks along the beach puzzled she sees the cutest little puppy laying on the sand, waging his tail…

“Good morning”, she hears… A Runner passes her by…

“Good…” responds A Girl in Shorts. Her greeting is interrupted by a puppy barking and sand flying, kicked by the Runner. A couple of old ladies stop, bewildered, staring at the scene.

A Girl in Shorts felt pain in her stomach. The puppy walked away, scared, and lonely.

As she kept walking along the shore, watching clouds disappear and morning sun show it’s orange glow, a Runner was jogging back.

“Have you seen that monster dog? He jumped on me trying to bite me. You saw it right?”

A Girl in Shorts was silent for a moment… She sighed… “I am afraid that’s what you saw, not me. I saw a little puppy laying on the shore, greeting the sun. I saw you running right towards him, he lightly barked, whether to greet you or maybe to make sure you didn’t step on him… Then I saw you kicked him with your running shoe. I saw him flipping in the air and whimpering, walk away”.

“Well, all dogs are the same. Always trying to bite you… he deserves it”, said a Runner, dissatisfied that A Girl in Shorts wouldn’t play his game…

A Girl in Shorts sighed, washed her feet and came back to her room, to write…

As you might have guessed it’s me wearing those silly shorts… washing out the sadness of an observer of human illusions… and writing to you about the world you are living in (the beautiful friendly world)… and the world you imagine (the world with ghosts and monsters, the enemies that are after you, the injustices and unfairness that you suffer from… But who causes them? )

You are A Venetian Man and A Runner, so often… and often your life is threatened by other “nice men”, and if you are a lucky Jelly Fish you survive, despite being kicked here and there like a Dog.

Do you really see them as they are, or as you are? Do you see them as a matter of fact or in a way that can justify your actions motivated by repressed anger and fear?

Can we once and for all see that it is our projections that we see and affect how we relate to other human beings? Let’s also face the mysterious fact that we rarely project our beauty onto another, very rarely… Then we call it “falling in love”, which if we are more specific about it could probably be called “falling out of fear”. But much more often we humans project our fears.

“Look at that whore!” Read instead, “I am not as attractive to her and because of her men will never love me, this attractive sexy woman. She threatens my game”. “Let’s burn the witch.”

“Look at that terrorist!” Read instead, “We are afraid that our society is falling apart, we cannot control others in a way that is safe for our structures created by greed and fear”. “Let’s announce a war against terrorism”.

“Look at that ungodly / not spiritual person!” Read instead, “Here is someone that doesn’t wear the right robes, doesn’t walk around smiling “God bless you” and saying “Namaste” all the time, and instead of throwing words of ‘light” and fake smiles of “love” at me she/he points to all my repressed and hidden truths that cause me to discriminate and abuse while nobody is watching… A person who embraces not only what seems to be light but also what is perceived as dark in us, she speaks about it openly, which means I would have to look at it and accept that I am “just pure light” only in my fantasy, that most of me is actually everything else – I am all of it, and I just have to face something I’d rather not deal with”… So… “Let’s close our eyes and just keep our eyes wide shut, sing songs of Love and keep hugging, and pretending it will do the trick”…

The question is, are we really so blind? Or do we just find comfort in pretending?

You will understand that the subject of non-violence (all aspects and degrees of it) is a deep passion of mine which I cannot ignore, and I see relationship as a direct expression of the degree of our honesty we’re willing to have with ourselves… We can only be non-violent, and we can only Love if we are brutally honest with ourselves, and perceive the world directly, not through our filters.

As long as we perceive the world not as it is but as we fear it to be, we risk being violent in our relationships with our “loved” ones, with our colleagues and business partners. I put the word loved in quotation marks because if we cannot perceive someone directly, honestly we cannot love them – and we know nothing about Love. The projected fear can manifest itself in all sort of passive-aggressive behavior, cheating, betraying, accusing, abusing.

We “love and care” for them in one moment (or for as long as it serves us) and then turn our back to them, in picking at them in the best case – in the worst case, abandoning them or wishing them harm.

Just think about all people you left behind after “loving them”… How many times did you act out of a lack of integrity? If you are brutally honest with yourself… This can become a long list, don’t you think?

So, nobody experiences life directly as is, nobody lives in a “real” world.

Everybody lives in their world of imaginary monsters.

And if that’s the case, how can there really be Love in such a world (Yes, there is plenty of pretend love, but can there really be Love?)

How can we be authentic and transparent with others in a love relationship, if we are not authentic and transparent with ourselves and not fully present to our own filters and perceptions? But we settle… Yet…

Is there another way to live and relate?

Is there any other way to Love and Co-create?

There should be, shouldn’t it?

SO, what stops us from it? What stops YOU, besides you?

With that thought A Girl in Shorts will leave you today…

Will you be A Venetian Man today who gets rid of Jelly Fish just in case, A Runner who kicks a dog so he doesn’t bite him? Will you be a Jelly Fish or a Dog kicked by another?

Or will you be a witness to it all… transcend the world of the unreal and dedicate your life to perceiving it directly? … and helping others to do the same…